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220-1202 Practice Question: A customer calls saying that after installing a…
A customer calls saying that after installing a new printer, their Windows 10 computer now takes much longer to shut down. They have uninstalled the printer software, but the slow shutdown persists. Which tool should you use to identify the cause of the shutdown delay?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is reaching for a live-monitoring tool (Task Manager, Performance Monitor) when the problem is a historical, logged event — the exam wants you to know that Event Viewer is the tool for post-incident shutdown/startup diagnostics.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Event Viewer
Event Viewer is the correct tool because Windows logs shutdown and service-stop events (including the notorious 'The program X stopped responding' and service timeout entries) in the System log, which reveals which driver, service, or application is delaying shutdown. The printer software likely left a service or driver that times out during shutdown, and Event Viewer's System and Application logs record those timeouts.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Task Manager
Why it's wrong here
Task Manager provides a real-time snapshot of currently running applications, processes, and services, along with immediate resource utilization statistics. While useful for identifying active resource hogs, it does not maintain a historical log of system events or provide specific diagnostic messages detailing why a service or driver failed to terminate gracefully during a shutdown sequence. Therefore, it cannot pinpoint the root cause of a slow shutdown after the fact.
- ✗
Performance Monitor
Why it's wrong here
Performance Monitor is designed to collect and display granular performance data over time using various counters for CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network activity. While it can record trends in resource consumption, it does not inherently log the specific error messages, service timeouts, or driver failures that directly cause delays during the system shutdown process. Its strength lies in analyzing resource bottlenecks during operation, not diagnosing event-driven shutdown issues.
- ✓
Event Viewer
Why this is correct
Event Viewer records system, application, and security logs. During a slow shutdown, the System log often contains warnings or errors from services or drivers that are delaying the process, allowing you to identify the culprit.
- ✗
Disk Cleanup
Why it's wrong here
Disk Cleanup is a utility primarily focused on freeing up disk space by identifying and removing non-essential files, such as temporary internet files, system error memory dumps, and Recycle Bin contents. While maintaining adequate free disk space is beneficial for overall system health, this tool does not diagnose or resolve underlying software conflicts, driver issues, or service termination problems that typically cause a slow shutdown. Its function is storage optimization, not system event troubleshooting.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official CompTIA exam blueprint
This 220-1202 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 220-1202 exam.